All For You
by nw
Summary: Ranma and Akane limp home after their latest encounter with the chaos of Nermina. One shot. Fluffyish. RA!


**Author's note:** _A big Thank You to everyone who read and reviewed my other fic, "If I Walked Away"! I've decided to (most probably) continue with that one for a bit, but also do some other stuff... it's holidays so I've got plenty of time to write now! _

_Anyway, this fic isn't new - I found it on my computer the other day and polished it up a tad. It was inspired by "Can'tStop"by the Red Hot Chili Peppers-_

_"Did you ever wonder if it's,_

_All for you?"_

**All For You**

'One step at a time. Ouch.'

Step,

'ouch'.

Step,

'ouch'.

Step,

'ouch...'.

Ranma was leaning heavily on a stick while limping on his left foot, looking battered

and worn. Dirt was smudged over his forehead and chin, while it mixed in with a light flow

of blood emerging from a small cut on his cheek. This was Ranma fresh from his latest

mishap.

Walking beside him was Akane, who looked on the whole a lot better but nonetheless

ruffled, dirty and tired. She was still in school uniform, but she'd lost her bag sometime that

afternoon. Most likely it had been destroyed in the fight.

It was late at night, but the air was comfortably warm, as was usual for mid-spring.

"Well," said Akane, speaking the first words since they started their walk home, "Shampoo

and Cologne must be running out of ideas by now."

Ranma grumbled something that sounded vaguely like "I doubt it", but did not look at her. He was surprised to hear that

her voice had a tone of amusement in it.

After a few minutes of silence passed, Ranma spoke in something other than grumbles.

"… hasn't she learnt her lesson about mail-order by now? Those cheap Jusenkyo

products never work, and now her mini-attack mech goes berserk and tries to kill us."

"What would she need it for in the first place?"

Ranma went silent. He was in a worse mood than Akane because he knew the answer to that question. It was yet another scheme of Shampoo and Cologne's to eliminate Akane as 'competition'. He knew that they hadn't intended for the mech to to beserk and destructive, and he wasn't even sure exactly what they were going to do to Akane to begin with, but he was irate all the same.

'Why does everyone have to keep interferin', anyway?!' he thought to himself.

Akane was still a little ruffled by the fact that Ranma had 'valiantly' rushed to her aid – he really didn't seem to think much of her self-protection skills. It was embarrassing and undermining. She couldn't stop herself from falling back into their usual pattern of confrontation – direct and tinted with dull anger.

"You know though, I was handling it fine before you jumped out of nowhere. You didn't have to get involved … you're all beat up now, look!"

Ranma glared at her and rebuked, "Yeah, like you could've handled it better than I could've. You didn't look so in control when the right arm of the mech was blasting off towards the back of your head."

That struck a nerve, provoking Akane further, "you went a bit overboard tackling it right into Shampoo's arms, don't you think?!"

Ranma was tired enough to say the first thing that came into his mind. There was no conscious inhibitions preventing honesty.

"Dammit Akane, don't you ever wonder if it's all for you?!"

"All for m-" – Akane abruptly went quiet, not sure if she was interpreting the implications right.

Ranma jerked suddenly as if touched with freezing cold ice. His eyes went wide and he looked positively furious at himself at the slip-up.

Akane immediately stopped walking as she stared intently at Ranma, who was turning new shades of red by the passing seconds. He seemed to have taken up a sudden interest with the sidewalk, and was staring at it with all his willpower, determinedly avoiding Akane's questioning gaze.

Dumbstruck, Akane continued to stare at him open-mouthed. 'Did he mean that?' she thought frantically.

The question ran through her mind endlessly at an amazing speed, and they both stood there, seemingly frozen in time.

'Oh no… my defenses are down cus I'm so tired! How'm I gonna get myself outta this one?' Ranma mentally chastised himself while continuing his staring competition with the sidewalk.

Eventually, Akane snapped out of her reverie and took a step towards Ranma, who seemed to tense up feeling her movement.

"Ranma..." said Akane softly, insignificant anger long since drained away like any normal colour from Ranma's face.

"Did you mean that?"

Screwing up his courage, Ranma's eyes slowly left the sidewalk to steal a fleeting glace into Akane's eyes. Then he lifted his head up just slightly and shyly met her gaze properly.

"W-well, I m-mean..." he stammered.

Akane felt heat rising to her own cheeks, but would not take her eyes off him.

Ranma seemed to come to a resolve, and straightened his back, looked Akane straight in the face and said quietly, "Yeah, I did".

They looked at each other seriously for a moment.

"Thank you…" trailed Akane quietly, then her face shifted into a brilliant smile, and she slowly turned and continued walking.

His heart beat in his chest and he found himself leaning on his injury-stick for whole other reasons. His head felt a bit faint from the days events, but as he shook off the feelings and cleared his mind, the image of Akane's smile remained.

And somewhat ludicrously, he felt as if tackling a self-destructing mech was completely justified for that day; as if all was actually alright and as normal as it could ever be around Nermina.

_Anyway, so review if you think I deserve it! Suggestions, comments, ideas and any other kind of feedback **much appreciated!** Fresh writing coming soon, look out for a Christmas special ;)_


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